Sales of second-hand homes plunged 60 percent to 40,699 last year, from 95,273 transactions in 2020, according to data provided by the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association.

Last year’s volume was the lowest since 2007, reports South China Morning Post.

Shenzhen’s sales plunge underscores the challenges that lie ahead for China’s government in resuscitating growth in China’s version of the Silicon Valley – home to several of China’s largest technology companies from Huawei Technologies to Tencent Holdings and DJI – amid a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic and a slowing economy.

“The upwards-spiral era of home prices is gone, and home buyers are more willing to wait on the sidelines,” Fion He, director of Midland Realty’s research unit, told the newspaper.

“The trend is particularly clear when we look at the dormant lived-in homes in Shenzhen after reference home prices were released last year,” He added.